The invention relates to a lever assembly for a beverage dispensing system.
Particularly, the invention relates to a lever assembly that can be installed on a tower beverage dispensing system, alternatively referred to as a “tea urn”, a “kiosk”, or a “fluid dispenser”, to provide greater control and leverage in operating valves utilized by the beverage dispensing system for controlling the dispensing of a beverage.
Beverage dispensing systems are commonly used in a wide variety of locales, including restaurants, snack bars, convenience stores, movie theaters, and any business where beverages are served. These beverage dispensing systems often dispense a variety of beverages of differing types and flavors, such as flavored carbonated sodas, iced tea, water, or even alcoholic beverages. These devices dispense the variety of beverages either by dispensing a single component beverage or by utilizing a dispensing array, also referred to as a diffuser, through which a single beverage may pass or a base beverage and a beverage additive, flow to a dispense point that facilitates discharge of beverages or beverage additives. The beverage components are then dispensed through a dispensing nozzle into a beverage container.
Some beverage dispensing systems are in the form of a beverage tower where the tower system can have a single nozzle or multiple nozzles for dispensing a beverage. When a single nozzle tower is used, it can be configured to dispense a variety of different beverages using valves in connection with a manifold and system of fluid lines connected to beverage sources allowing for distributing a mixed or single component beverage through a nozzle. Buttons can be used to activate the valves to control the flow of the beverage from the system. (The same concept is used with handheld bar guns except that the buttons and valves are located in the bar gun itself rather than in the beverage tower dispenser.) The beverage dispensers utilizing this concept have at least one button, and often numerous buttons, for controlling the dispensing of a single beverage component or a mixed beverage into a container.
Some operators perceive the buttons used on the described beverage dispensers to have some disadvantages because the buttons mechanically activate the valves of the beverage dispensing system. According to some operators, the buttons seem small and may fill with overspray from the beverage itself, causing them to get sticky and harder to depress with prolonged use. Some operators consider the buttons to lack any mechanical advantage because the force needed to open the valves is the same force required to operate the button. With prolonged use, some operators find operating the bar gun or tower assembly more difficult.
Accordingly, it is desirable to develop an assembly that can easily be installed on a tea urn or other such tower beverage dispensing device to make dispensing beverages easier.